Mystery Hasids Swap Hats and Dance With Senators Lindsey Graham and Al Franken
Lindsey Graham admired these Orthodox fellows’s fedoras. Image by Getty Images, twitter
By Josh Nathan-Kazis January 12, 2017
On the way to a Senate vote yesterday, Lindsey Graham stopped a group of Hasidic Jews to compliment their hats.
What ensued was a general swapping of fedoras, to judge by a photo that Graham’s Senate colleague Ben Sasse posted on Twitter.
On the subway to the vote, Lindsey literally struck up the conversation with “Hey Fellas. I love your hats.” pic.twitter.com/XWJVC44Rq3
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) January 11, 2017
Graham, a Southern Baptist, is grinning broadly as men who appear to be members of the Lubavitch Hasidic group place one of their fedoras on his head.
From there the mystery Hasidim appear to have moved on to the Senate’s Jewish caucus: Moments later, a reporter for ABC News tweeted that Senator Al Franken had stopped in the Senate hallways to dance with unknown Hasidim.
Spotted: Sen. Al Franken passing a bunch of Hassidic Jews and breaking out in “shalom aleichem” and a dance. Made my night.
— Ali Rogin (@AliABCNews) January 11, 2017
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected]
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Fast Forward In first Sunday address, Pope Leo XIV calls for ceasefire in Gaza, release of hostages
-
Fast Forward Huckabee denies rift between Netanyahu and Trump as US actions in Middle East appear to leave out Israel
-
Fast Forward Federal security grants to synagogues are resuming after two-month Trump freeze
-
Fast Forward NY state budget weakens yeshiva oversight in blow to secular education advocates
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Ye debuts ‘Heil Hitler’ music video that includes a sample of a Hitler speech
- 2
Opinion It looks like Israel totally underestimated Trump
- 3
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
- 4
Fast Forward Student suspended for ‘F— the Jews’ video defends himself on antisemitic podcast
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture Should Diaspora Jews be buried in Israel? A rabbi responds
-
Fast Forward In first Sunday address, Pope Leo XIV calls for ceasefire in Gaza, release of hostages
-
Fast Forward Huckabee denies rift between Netanyahu and Trump as US actions in Middle East appear to leave out Israel
-
Fast Forward Federal security grants to synagogues are resuming after two-month Trump freeze
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.